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Sports

Mills-Cap Rivalry Resurrected With Soccer Match

Vikings and Mustangs set for high-stakes girls soccer showdown under lights at Mills; rare game in which rivals square off with league-title implications at stake.

When and opened their doors in the 1950s, one of the Peninsula’s most animated rivalries was instantly born.

Even with both athletic departments going through some lean years of late, the rivalry has persisted, breathing some life into many otherwise uneventful games.

Whether varsity football or junior varsity water polo, the Mills-Capuchino rivalry has meant something more to the athletes involved for parts of seven decades, spawning smack talk in chance meetings at the mall and now on social networking sites.

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Today, the two schools play a that will ostensibly decide the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division girls soccer title. And although both play regular season finales on Thursday that could throw a monkey wrench into that scenario, the two campuses are abuzz in anticipation of the most significant game between the two schools anybody can remember.

“Not in recent memory,” Capuchino athletic director Mike Trimble said when asked the last time the two schools played for a league championship.

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“Might be as far back as the 1970s,” he added. “Nobody here really knows for sure.”

Capuchino, 11-1 in the PAL Ocean, is playing for its first league title in seven years after six consecutive second-place finishes. The Mustangs can clinch the outright championship with a win today or a share of the crown with a tie.

Meanwhile, Mills (9-0-3 PAL Ocean) is seeking what’s believed to be its first ever league title. The Vikings can pull into a first-place tie by beating their archrival. The winner of the game gets an automatic Central Coast Section playoff berth.

Mills hosts the 7pm game that was originally slated to be played in the afternoon.

When the game’s title implications became apparent a few weeks ago, Mills coach Caroline Tiziani secured portable lights from the district to make the game a special event.

Tiziani tapped funds her team raised over the year through carwashes and bake sales for maintenance staffers to set up the lights.

“I wanted my girls to experience the night game,” Tiziani said. “We don’t get to do that on a regular basis so I wanted them to experience that and I want the families to be able to come.

“The fact that it’s against Capuchino makes it even better because it’s going to be a great game.”

The game will also showcase two of the Peninsula’s most talented players in any league.

Capuchino senior and Mills senior were the PAL Ocean’s forward of the year selections in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Vaquerano is one of the quickest players you’ll see at the high school level. She features a powerful left-footed shot and great instincts. She’s in her fourth varsity season and has already scored over 100 career goals.

Cazares is a fantastic dribbler with great leadership skills and a nose for the goal. She leads the Vikings with 17 goals and 15 assists.

Vaquerano and Cazares happen to be close friends and are teammates on the San Bruno Galaxy club team.

Both are by all accounts at least good enough to play at Division II if not Division I schools next year. Although local junior colleges are recruiting them like used car salesmen at the end of a slow month, they’ve largely been ignored by four-year schools who do most of their scouting in the more advanced and “pay-to-play,” cash-ola club circuits.

Four-year schools should take notice.

Vaquerano and Cazares might not have the polish of some of the elite club players, but they don’t have the stress fractures and burnout of a lot of their premier counterparts for whom soccer becomes work by the time they get to four-year schools.

They’re not the Peninsula’s only overlooked players, but their schools’ Ocean affiliation, which doesn’t afford them the chance to establish relationships with players and coaches in the PAL’s top-tier Bay Division, clearly hasn’t helped.

“Nature of the beast,” Tiziani said. “When you play in a league with a little more prestige, word’s going to get out.

“For me, I don’t know who the best players in the Bay are. We’re that separate.”

Vaquerano and Cazares aren’t the only ones who’ll be showcased today.

It also happens to be Mills’ senior night, and Tiziani has arranged for announcers to broadcast the ceremony over the stadium’s speaker system.

“If we didn’t do that we’d just have it on the field at 3 in the afternoon and nobody would be there,” she said.

The lighting equipment won’t be perfect, nor will the field conditions on what’s expected to be a soggy night. But thanks to Tiziani’s vision, families, students, parents and teachers from both schools will be able to enjoy what will surely be an unforgettable night for players on both teams.

“I think it adds to the game,” Trimble said of playing under the lights.

“It’s huge. It’s like the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, and from what I’ve heard there’s a lot of chirping on Facebook and Twitter.”

If recent history is any indication, expect that chirping to carry over onto the field, with some longstanding friendships on hold for an intense 80-minute battle. When last month in the first round of league play, two players were red-carded.

“I think it’s great,” Tiziani said. “These are rival schools are battling for a league championship so to look at it in a positive way, this is what high school sports is all about.”

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